Toho’s Place In Tour History

The start of the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Toho is less than two weeks away. Official practice starts in just six days (kind of makes you wish you lived in Florida, huh?).

That means it’s time for pros to begin making last-minute preparations. And, as an FLW Tour fan, you also need to prepare yourself for what to expect. Just as a tournament pro readies for action, your preparation should begin with a look back at prior FLW competitions on Lake Toho and what it might portend for the season-opener.

Don’t worry, we made it easy for you. What follows is a synopsis of FLW’s Lake Toho tournaments that have been held at various points between the months of January and April since 2000. There are 15 in all: two Walmart FLW Tour events and 13 Walmart Bass Fishing League derbies.

Those past results should provide some pieces to the puzzle of what to expect when the 2015 Tour opens March 5-8. That’s just the beginning, because later this week we’ll have up-to-date reports and predictions from a cadre of Walmart Bass Fishing League anglers who consider the Kissimmee-Toho system to be their home fishery. Stay tuned for their perspective regarding how this year’s tournament should measure up to Toho events of recent past.

The 2005 Tour

The FLW Tour visited Toho on Feb. 9-12, 2005 for its second tournament of the season. Veteran Georgia pro Tom Mann Jr. won the tournament and its $100,000 payday by a slim 10-ounce margin over Californian Art Berry.

In those days, FLW cleared the weights after two days of competition, and only the top 10 fished the last two days. The winner was determined by the heaviest cumulative weight on days three and four.

JT Kenney opened the tournament with the kind of limits that Florida is known for in the spring. Fishing on Kissimmee, Kenney blasted 40 pounds, 15 ounces in the opening two-day round. His day-one stringer included a 9-pound kicker. Co-angler Rich Lowitzki got in on the big-fish action too with a largemouth weighing 11-3.

Interestingly, a cold front that arrived early on day three nearly shut down the bite entirely. Only two limits were caught, one of which was Bobby Lane’s 10-pound, 14-ounce stringer. Lane was 2-12 ahead of Mann going into day four.

That final day, no one in the top 10 caught more than three keepers. Lane weighed only two fish for 2-5 and left the door open for Mann, whose winning weight over the last two days totaled 16-2. Had the event been a four-day cumulative tournament, as Tour events are now, Mann would’ve weighed 53-7 – a far cry from the pace that Kenney set early on.

Mann ground out the win in tough conditions by slow-fishing with a Yamamoto Senko around an assortment of shallow grass in Kissimmee where bass were staging prior to the spawn. He reported at the time that the water temperature dropped 10 degrees during the frontal passage, and thus, a slow retrieve and thorough coverage were necessary just to get bites.

Lane caught most of his fish on a spinnerbait and worm. Berry’s final-day bag was more of an eye-catcher because of the bait that produced his kicker. He caught one flipping, one on a spinnerbait and a 3 1/2-pounder on a Baby E swimbait, which he referred to at the time as “the first true tournament-ready swimbait.” Today, swimbaits are considered go-to tackle in Florida’s weedy waters and there are at least a dozen options considered specifically to be “grass swimbaits.”

According to pretournament reports, the 2005 event came shortly on the heels of extensive restoration work within the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. After drawing down the water, workers bulldozed areas of decaying vegetation and began restoring the lake more closely to its original form. Then a series of hurricanes raised the lake level, resulting in higher turbidity than normal.

Of note, the tournament launched on Lake Toho at Kissimmee Lakefront Park, which is the same location where this year's event will launch. Following recent renovations, this year's event will be the first major tournament to be held at the new Big Toho Marina within the park.

The 2008 Tour

Fishing fans might recall more about the 2008 tournament than 2005’s event, mostly because of how the winner, Brett Hite, proved that his victory was strictly a result of skill and momentum. After stomping the field on Toho Feb. 28-March 2, the Arizona pro traveled back to the West Coast and won the California Delta FLW Series Western Division event a week later. Hite did all his damage in both events with a vibrating jig and Yamamoto Swim Senko trailer.

The 2008 tournament also launched out of Kissimmee Lakefront Park, and Hite ran to Lake Kissimmee the entire tournament. His performance began as one of peaks and valleys. He caught 22 pounds, 6 ounces on day one to take the early lead. Across the board, anglers did surprisingly well in the opening round despite a cold front that wracked the region the night before and knocked the water temperature back by 10 degrees. Three limits of more than 20 pounds were caught, and 65 pros landed five-fish limits.

On day two, Hite slipped to fifth with a measly limit of 6-8. The leader’s struggles stemmed from increased boat traffic and heavier winds that made making precise presentations more challenging, and Hite was also plagued by poor execution that resulted in several lost fish. All four of the pros who jumped ahead of him in the standings did so with slow presentations and plastic worms.

With weights cleared on a much warmer day three, Hite experienced another peak. Actually, he blew away the field with a 25-2 limit. His day-three catch alone was more than any other member of the top 10 caught on days three and four combined. Toss in another limit of 13 and change the final day and Hite won by more than 20 pounds.

Throughout the tournament Hite targeted open lanes in fields of hyacinths, lily pads and hydrilla. He fished his Phenix vibrating jig similarly to the way many anglers fish a Rat-L-Trap for prespawn bass in the grass: every time the lure bumped a piece of cover, Hite ripped it out, triggering reaction strikes.

Slower presentations with soft plastics might have outperformed Hite’s vibrating jig on the second day, but his more aggressive bait was easily dominant the rest of the time.

BFL Numbers

Several additional one-day Walmart Bass Fishing League events have been held on other parts of the Kissimmee system, but for brevity and simplicity, we compiled the following stats based on events scheduled specifically as Lake Toho tournaments.

All 13 were Gator Division tournaments.

Date Winning Weight Winning Angler

3/11/2000 20 pounds, 5 ounces Glenn Browne

2/24/2001 19 pounds, 15 ounces Joseph Kremer

2/23/2002 17 pounds, 3 ounces Troy Olivier

2/19/2005 19 pounds, 9 ounces Jason Perkins

1/28/2006 20 pounds, 5 ounces Don DeMott

1/20/2007 17 pounds, 9 ounces Roland Smith

1/12/2008 22 pounds David Givens

3/5/2011 21 pounds, 14 ounces Mark Detweiler

4/16/2011 20 pounds, 9 ounces Brandon Medlock

3/10/2012 23 pounds, 14 ounces Rick Butler

3/31/2012 22 pounds, 1 ounce Kyle Walters

3/9/2013 22 pounds, 1 ounce Luke Campbell

4/20/2013 29 pounds, 6 ounces Richard Patterson

Weight Expectations

Judging by BFL results and the performance of FLW Tour pros in two previous stops, anglers should be able to expect the winner’s weight to hover around the 20-pounds-per-day mark if conditions remain favorable throughout the tournament. And there’s always the possibility of someone busting a bigger limit.

Of course, this is Florida, and it’s springtime, so there’s bound to be at least one cold front that impacts the outcome. An untimely chill could cut that daily catch rate in half – or by even more.

Mother Nature truly will be in control.

Slow, Fast or In Between

Presentations at the Toho events covered here ranged from slowly soaking Texas- and wacky-rigged worms to winding spinnerbaits, vibrating jigs and swimbaits through the grass.

This time as before, the choice of lure will depend on the timing of spawning bass, whether conditions are warm or cold, and the amount of wind.

2019 BFL All-American Roster

The 98 best boaters and co-anglers from FLW’s grassroots ranks will compete on the Potomac River May 30-June 1 in the 2019 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League All-American presented by General Tire. READ MORE »

May 10, 2019

Table Rock Midday Update – Day 2

Fishing pressure and a cold front have shut down the bite at Table Rock Lake for stop No. 2 of the Costa FLW Series Central Division season. The lake's largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass are not coming easy. READ MORE »

May 7, 2019

Spawn in Full Bloom on Table Rock

Stop No. 2 of the Costa FLW Series Central Division should shape up to be quite the catchfest. Coming off of the division opener on Kentucky Lake, where pros were challenged with tough fishing, this week’s event, which is presented by Power-Pole and hosted by Explore Branson, should be stellar in terms of both numbers and quality of fish. READ MORE »

May 5, 2019

Korostetskyi Crowned Kayak Champ at Nickajack

Bogdan Korostetskyi won the Dee Zee FLW/KBF Kayak Open presented by YakAttack at Nickajack Lake with a two-day total of 174.25 inches of largemouth bass. He caught his winning fish on a ChatterBait. READ MORE »

May 4, 2019

Korostetskyi Leads Kayak Open on Nickajack

Bogdan Korostetskyi leads day one of the Dee Zee FLW/KBF Kayak Open presented by YakAttack at Nickajack Lake with a total catch of 92 1/2 inches. All of his fish were largemouth bass that he caught using aggressive baits on very precise spots. READ MORE »

May 1, 2019

Going Shallow with Lawyer

Heading into the sixth stop of the year on Chickamauga, which is presented by Evinrude, Lawyer says he’s looking to go easy and make sure he’s on the road to Hot Springs this August for his third shot at a Cup title. With that in mind, I was happy to hop aboard and see the shallow side of Chickamauga. READ MORE »

May 1, 2019

FLW Live Schedule for Chickamauga

FLW Live is back for 2019 FLW Tour stop No. 6 on the big-fish waters of Lake Chickamauga. The event, which is presented by Evinrude and hosted by Fish Dayton and the Rhea Economic & Tourism Council, runs Thursday, May 2 through Sunday, May 5. READ MORE »

May 1, 2019

Emergency Eye Surgery Derails Horton’s Cup Hopes

On Thursday, for the first time in eight years as a pro and 25 years as a competitive bass angler, Jamie Horton won’t cross the weigh-in stage on a tournament day when he’d planned to compete. Instead, the Alabama pro will be back in his Centerville home recovering from emergency eye surgery to repair a severely detached and torn retina in his right eye. READ MORE »

April 30, 2019

Get to Know Lake Chickamauga

The 2019 FLW Tour event at Lake Chickamauga, which is presented by Evinrude, is hitting the lake before the primary offshore migration has occurred, which means that some ledge fishing will take place, but a whole mess of other patterns should play as well. Here’s a look at where the anglers will be competing this week. READ MORE »

April 30, 2019

Nichols Wins Southeastern AOY, Shot at Tour

Within the FLW tournament hierarchy, there’s plenty of youth and enthusiasm to go around, but only so many spots on the FLW Tour. That’s why 27-year-old Cody Nichols of Fayette, Ala., isn’t going to let his opportunity to join the Tour pass him by in 2020. Nichols is the 2019 Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division Strike King Angler of the Year. By finishing in the top five in the division standings, he qualifies to join the Tour next season. READ MORE »

April 29, 2019

By the Numbers: Lake Chickamauga

The FLW Tour’s sixth stop of the season is Lake Chickamauga in east Tennessee. One of the gems of the South for hunting monster bass, the Lake of the Giants promises big fish – and lots of them – and perhaps the best chance of seeing the century mark broken this season. READ MORE »

Catch Fish, Cure Childhood Cancer

There may never have been a better excuse to go fishing than curing childhood cancer. Now, if you participate in the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation (NPCF) All American Fishing Tournament, you can help be a part of funding critical research to do just that. The All American Fishing Tournament is a one-of-a-kind multi-species nationwide event. It started April 6 and ends Sept. 28. Participants can target 10 species of freshwater and saltwater fish during the tournament, with prizes of $500, $300 and $200 awarded for the three largest catches of each species. READ MORE »

April 24, 2019

2019 Lake Chickamauga Preview

Lake Chickamauga in east Tennessee is a big-bass playground where anglers regularly catch trophy fish that surpass 10 pounds. In early May, it'll host the FLW Tour for the third time in six years. Previous events were held in June, so this stop promises to offer a different look at the Chick. READ MORE »

April 24, 2019

The Miles Burghoff Master Plan

Miles Burghoff is in a rare position. He’s a rookie on the FLW Tour, and he’s leading the 2019 Angler of the Year race with two tournaments left to fish. Traditionally, the AOY frontrunners are veteran pros in the prime of their careers, not rookies who are often still trying to learn their way around a full season of Tour competition. Burghoff, however, isn’t your traditional rookie. READ MORE »

April 23, 2019

Backlash with Jordan Osborne

FLW Tour pro Jordan Osborne discusses life in Texas, the business of running a pawnshop and how, as a self-taught bass angler, he's leaned on his competitive drive to overcome the doubters in his quest to make it at the highest levels of tournament bass fishing. READ MORE »

April 22, 2019

Big Weights Expected at Santee Cooper

The Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division finishes up its 2019 season at the Santee Cooper lakes, Marion and Moultrie, in South Carolina this week. Forty pros and co-anglers will qualify for the championship, and an Angler of the Year will be crowned as the field fishes for hefty postspawn largemouths. READ MORE »

April 17, 2019

Cup Bubble Boys with Two to Go

The top 40 pros in the 2019 FLW Tour standings qualify to fish the FLW Cup on Lake Hamilton Aug. 9-11. For about a dozen pros, the final two events of the season will decide whether they make it in or out. READ MORE »